Leon Camier To Race For Honda World Superbike Team In 2018

The Red Bull Honda World Superbike team issued the following press release announcing the signing of Leon Camier for 2018:

Camier joins Honda for the 2018 FIM Superbike World Championship

Honda Motor Europe and the Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team are pleased to announce the signing of Leon Camier, who will join the squad for the 2018 FIM Superbike World Championship. The 31-year-old from Ashford, Kent, United Kingdom, will be riding the WorldSBK-spec version of the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 throughout the upcoming season.

British Superbike champion in 2009, Camier joined WorldSBK on a full-time basis the following year and since then he established himself as one of the most talented and quickest riders in the field. Over the years, Camier has also gathered a wealth of experience by racing on several different machines, and his combination of speed, experience and determination will be a huge asset to the team.

Camier will join the team at the end of the current season to start the winter testing programme on the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2.

Marco Chini

Honda's WorldSBK Operations Manager

We’re extremely happy to have Leon on board for the upcoming WorldSBK season. He’s a great talent and an extremely professional rider, so I’m sure it will be a pleasure to work with him. We’re confident that his expertise will help us raise the performance of the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 to a whole new level so we’re looking forward to the new challenge. Right now, however, there’s still a season to complete, so we are fully concentrated on the remaining rounds in order to improve our package and finish the year on a high note.

Can MV Agusta convince PJ Jacobsen to stay in the fold by bumping him up to WSBK? Or do they go for another tall guy in Loris Baz? Pluck either Guintoli or Haslem from BSB? Or a good but not great Italian rider in Davide Giugliano? Or maybe Xavi Fores if he is replaced by Michael Ruben Rinaldi at Barni?

One could safely assume the budget is better there and he's proven himself a good development rider so I say win/win. Now if they sign Loris for the other bike (not sure that's what Red Bull wants though), even if the bike is still slow, between the two of them they can just elbow their way through the field. ;)

Why not indeed. I would have enjoyed seeing Leon Camier do even better on the MV than the good results he has had so far. I would have love to see L.C. win on that other Italian thoroughbred. The decision makers at MV Augusta made their choice. too bad. As I have posted previously, MV should have had a two rider team. MV reparto corse did a good job with what they had. Well done them!

Best of luck to Leon Camier on the Honda Failblade I truly hope the results are better for the big H in 2018. I know that Nicky Hayden's tragic demise put a spanner in the works...... But it is Honda, how can they perform so badly ???? How much has Honda lost face being beaten, Flogged severely, I mean by Kawasaki, year after year after year.

HRC hasn't "factory" supported any sbk team since they left after the 2002 season and put all of their investment in the new motogp 4-stroke era. Prior to that, Honda and Ducati were the dominant manufacturers. They couldn't hang with Ducati's cc advantage so they made a BETTER Ducati (RC51) and beat them at their own game....then left for Moto GP. Ducati's "Bread & Butter" has always been WSBK so they will almost always have a "factory" team. Kawasaki actually decided to put all of their budget and r&d into WSBK not Moto GP. This is why they have a complete package to compete. The rest of the grid is just independent customer privateers. I'm totally for spec electronics and very little to no rider aids. This will basically get rid of factory efforts AND make for awesome racing. Look at BSB. Bring back the original sbk formula with highly souped up street bikes...NO FACTORY ELECTRONICS!